Councils “extremely unlikely” to meet landfill targets

Under the Directive, Member States must reduce the amount of biodegradable municipal waste sent for disposal in landfills to 75% of 1995 levels by 2010 and 50% by 2013. If the targets are not met, the UK faces a fine of up to 180 million a year – the equivalent of 500,000 a day.

” Money needs to be targeted on authorities that most need it.“
– Cllr Paula Baker, LGA
At a hearing of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee this week, Councillor Paula Baker from the Local Government Association told MPs that under the current situation, English councils will not divert enough material from landfill to meet these Directive targets.

The LGA warned that waste growth rates are undermining the additional recycling that local authorities are carrying out. The average growth rate for the production of household waste in the UK is about 3%, but the Landfill Directive targets are tied to the amount of waste produced in the year 1995.

And, although the government is investing close to 2.2 billion in improving UK waste management, the LGA warned that for local authorities, the “scattergun” funding approach means money may not be going where it is most needed. “Money needs to be targeted on authorities that most need it,” Cllr Baker said.

Cllr Baker, a councillor at Basingstoke and Deane borough council in Hampshire, said that not enough information is known about the specific difficulties faced by councils, making it difficult to target funding appropriately.

LATS
The Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme (LATS) is the government’s key measure to meet the Landfill Directive targets (see letsrecycle.com report), but Cllr Baker said councils were facing too much risk under the scheme.

Under LATS, councils will be fined 150 for every tonne they landfill above the amount of landfill allowances they hold.

But, councils that most need new landfill diversion plants may not be able to build them in time, or they do not have confidence in the treatment options on offer. Because they may therefore need to set aside money to buy allowances – or pay fines – money may not then be available for them to build the much-needed waste treatment infrastructure, Cllr Baker warned.

PFI
The LGA also warned MPs that millions of pounds are being wasted through the Private Finance Initiative system of funding for public-private waste management contracts.

Alice Roberts, executive officer for environment at the LGA, said that one council paid 3 million for consultants and lawyers to set up a new PFI-contract, but that the work carried out by the lawyers and consultants was essentially repeating work in preparation of other councils’ PFI contracts.

The LGA is lobbying the government to establish a centre of excellence so that information on best practice is available so that councils do not need to waste resources on work that has already been done elsewhere. Ms Roberts said such a centre would “deliver cost savings and efficiency gains”.

• The LGA is to launch an online bulletin-board system next week to help local authorities to trade landfill allowances. While the LATS system does not begin until April 2005, the LGA’s Alice Roberts said disposal authorities are already eager to start trading allowances.